Week 18 - October 17

Hi everyone!!! There is so much I want to tell you but I have so
little time. I will take some pictures of my journal entries for this
week and send those. The news for now though is that I am getting
transferred to Evansville, Indiana!!!! I just found out like 2 hours
ago :) I was supposed to stay here but then some things happen that
caused them to have to switch me last minute. I literally get to pack
up my entire house and leave with less than 24 hours of notice... Haha
yay :) I am quite excited though. But soo sad. I loooove the people
here so much and I am going to miss them so much! My new companion's
name is Hermana Heil and I will get to meet up with her tomorrow and
leave for my new area. Hermana Starling is going to Paris, Kentucky
which means our area is getting white washed (2 missionaries going
there who know nothing about the area taking our place). It's scary
but it's the Lord's plan :) it's weird how attached you can be to
people and places with only knowing them for 3 months.... Well have a
great week everybody!!!!

Week 15 - September 26

Hi everyone!!! This week I have learned the importance of acting on
promptings you receive. I don't have any super exciting stories but I
know it's very important to be worthy of the Spirit always. When we
are worthy and when we are listening, we can be guided and directed by
the Holy Ghost in all things. It's very important because sometimes
acting on a very small prompting can change the course of someone's
life for the better. God has a plan for us all and one way he helps us
realize that plan is through other people. As we follow the spirit, we
can help God's plan for someone else become a reality! Isn't that so
cool that God gives us that much responsibility? As we act on the
promptings we receive, God will grant us more opportunities to prove
ourselves and to help others. Eventually we can get to the point where
God knows He can trust us and will lead us to those people whose lives we can truly bless. 
This gospel is true! God is good and He loves you!

Week 14 - September 21

Hi Everyone! This week was good and crazy!!!! We found a lot of new
people who could potentially start progressing:) The highlight of my
week though happened on Sunday and Monday. We met a guy named Eugenio
earlier in the week and we had a lesson with him. He asked if he could
come to church before we even invited him! And then he was like "I am
going!" So we were very excited for that. We went to his house on
Sunday morning to have him follow us to the church. We got ready to
leave his house and he was like, "Can I bring my friend?" We said, "OF
COURSE!!!!!" So him and his friend came to church. And guess who his
friend was...... It was Daniel!!! The investigator we dropped like 3
weeks ago because he wouldn't come to church or keep commitments. So
we were very happy. Church that day was like the best I have been to
here in Kentucky and they both loved it! It was such a great
experience to see the fellowship they got and how they were able to
feel the spirit. So we invited them over to the Perez family's house
after church for a lesson. They both came and we had an amazing lesson
about the Book of Mormon. They both committed to read and come back
the next night for family home evening. Eugenio was having car
troubles and wasn't able to come on Monday for FHE but Daniel was! We
watched the Testaments movie that shows about when Christ came to the
Americas and blessed the people. It is an amazing video and I would
recommend it to everyone. Daniel really really liked it and told us he
has a testimony that Jesus came to the Americas. It was so cool to
hear him say that. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would
:) It was amazing. We tried to get him to commit to the 29th of
October but that seemed a little soon for him, so we will keep working
with him and help him feel more ready. We are so excited because he is
such a nice guy and has such a strong testimony of Christ and is
willing to act upon it. We are really excited for Eugenio too because
he seems to really want to learn more. I will keep you updated on
them. The main thing I learned this week is that miracles happen. We
taught more lessons last week than we have ever taught in a week, and
were able to find 12 new investigators. Like when does that ever
happen??? We aren't sure how solid they will be, but we gave them all
Books of Mormon and will continue to meet with them :) It was a week
of so many blessings and we were just so grateful to God for leading
us to the people who are prepared to be baptized. Eugenio and Daniel
are so ready and we are just helping them realize that. God is good
and he blesses us so much! We need to recognize those blessings and
thank God for them. He has given us everything. Have a great week!

Week 13 - September 12

Hi everyone!! How are you doing?

 This week has been rather interesting..... On Tuesday Hermana Starling
 found a bedbug in her bed..... It was only one, but it was definitely
 a bed bug :/ she saw it and screamed for me to come and see... We
 trapped it in a waterbottle where it exploded. It was rather exciting.
 We needed to disinfect our apartment because we weren't sure if there
 were more bedbugs. So we went to the store and bought 3 cans of bed
 bug killer spray and gloves and garbage bags and set off to work. We
 sprayed literally everything in our apartment. It was sooo strong that
 we had to sleep over at the apartment of another companionship of
 sisters. Oh and we also took everything that was made of cloth in our
 apartment (clothes, sheets, rugs, towels, etc) and put them in big
 black garbage bags in our car so all the bugs would die from the heat.
 The bags literally almost touched the ceiling of the car. Good times.
 We ended up sleeping at their house for 2 more nights and then going
 home. When we went back, we didn't know which bags our sheets or
 blankets were in so we slept with no blankets for one night. It was
 freezing. I have never been so grateful for blankets in my life as the
 next night. We ended up finding another bed bug while we were at our
 apartment, so we stayed with the sisters again. We bought more bug
 spray and sprayed everything again. So hopefully there aren't any
 more. So last night we finally slept in our own apartment again. Yay!

 So we were able to have 3 lessons with Jennifer last week and she is
 still progressing toward baptism. She is so willing to listen and do
 the things we ask, so she is still on track. Her baptism will be
 October 9th!!

 We had another lesson with Magali and she seemed to really like the
 things we taught her and says her heart has been more open.

 This week I have learned the importance of giving your heart fully to
 the Lord while serving a mission. I am still far from that point, but
 I hope I can continue to improve until I am entirely focused on being
 a missionary. It's actually quite a cool opportunity to be able to
 give all your time and energy to the Lord for a short period of time.
 And even for those who aren't serving full time missions, it's so
 important to make time for the things that matter most and will be
 most important in the end. We often don't think about them as being so
 important or we make excuses as to why we can't do them. These things
 are family, loved ones, prayer, church, studying scriptures, serving
 others and just in general trying to get closer to God. They are small
 and may not seem like they matter, but believe me, they do. If you put
 these things first in your life, everything else will fall into place.
 God has the power to do that :). He loves you and wants you to return
 to live with Him again someday. Try to become better each day by
 improving on just one thing. You will be blessed for it :)

 I love you all! Have a great week!

Week 12 - September 5

Hi everyone!!

This week was a good one! Unfortunately we had to drop Daniel because
he wasn't reading.... We told him to call us when he started reading
and we could teach him again. However, the highlight of my week was
probably at Jennifer's house. We went over and started talking about
how she was doing, etc. Out of the blue she was like... "So when I was
walking home from school today I was thinking... I wanna get baptized"
We were surprised (She hadn't been reading or keeping commitments
before) so we talked to her a lot about it and she seemed to really
seemed to be serious about it. We told her it was a big step and that
she would need to do a lot of things to prepare before she can be
baptized. She told us she really wants to do it, and soon so both
Hermana Starling and I can be there. So we set a baptism date for
October 2nd (we are going to have to switch it to the week before or
the week after because of conference weekend) BUT nonetheless, she has
a baptism date!!! We told her we are going to have to teach her a lot
in order to help her prepare by the right day. She agreed to meeting
with us 3 times a week and to work on praying, reading scriptures,
repenting, and going to all 3 hours of church(her family always leaves
after Sacrament meeting). We agreed and promised her it would be a
great experience for her if she prepared. :) We also talked to her
parents about it, and they were very supportive-we just hope they will
continue to be supportive after she is baptized. Jennifer came with us
to watch the baptism of a girl named Ashanti on Saturday and we
explained everything to her and showed her what clothes she will get
to wear, and how she will be baptized. She seemed to think it was
cool, but is a bit nervous. And then on Sunday came the real test-
would she go to all 3 hours of church? We wouldn't be able to tell,
because her family goes to the Spanish branch and we go to an English
ward. But we asked some missionaries in the Branch she will be
attending to help out with fellowshipping her and helping her feel
welcome. They also said they will try and get lots of people from the
Spanish Branch out to help teach before and after she is baptized. At
the end of Sunday we asked the missionaries if the Santos family had
gone to church- and they had gone to all 3 hours!!!!!!! Which is SUCH
a good thing for them. They haven't gone to all of church for a long
time. And it showed us that Jennifer was willing to help her family
get there and that she was willing to keep her commitments. We are
hoping that through Jennifer's baptism we can help her family remember
how they felt when they were baptized, and that they will also be able
to return to church.

Also, we had the chance to teach an investigator named Amado. He is
the one we met on the street and taught a full lesson to, right then
and there. We friended him on Facebook and had been asking him
throughout the week how his reading had been going. He said it was
going well and that he felt really good while he was reading.  On
Saturday, we were able to have a lesson with him over Skype. We taught
him about the gospel of Jesus Christ-faith, repentance, baptism,
receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He was really
receptive and had many good questions. As we were teaching the spirit
was strong, and we really just felt that Amado is such a good person
and ready to hear this message. We emphasized the importance of
baptism and also explained about how the Atonement helps us repent. We
invited him to be baptized at the end.... He was a bit hesitant, but
in the end he said that he will be baptized if he one day feels it is
necessary-which, he will feel, if he does everything we ask him to do
to strengthen his relationship with God. It was such a great lesson
and we are so hopeful for his baptism in the coming months.

We also had another lesson over Facebook messenger. It was really good
to do it for a second time, now that we kind of had an idea of how to
do it. We talked about the Book of Mormon applies to our lives now,
and what different prophecies mean. And also, we talked about the
Godhead, and how it is made up of 3 separate personages. I know that
the Book of Mormon blesses lives. It has been so great to see the
things I have learned as I have started reading it again.

We also were able to find a new investigator named Magali. She is 18
years old and has a little baby boy named Jesus. He is THE. CUTEST.
BABY. EVER. (Sorry to any of you I offend with that statement). But
literally. Hermana Starling and I wanted to hold him so bad, but we
can't as missionaries. He is literally so tiny, but has a ton of hair
and huge dark brown eyes. I should have taken a picture so you would
all believe me about how cute he was. We talked to her about the Plan
of Salvation and about how we don't believe in infant baptism. We gave
her the reasons and she says she wants her son to be able to choose to
be baptized, rather that having it done for him when he is a baby. So
that was a good breakthrough. She seemed pretty receptive to our
message and is at a time in her life when she is starting to teach her
son, so we know what we share will bless her life.

Hmm... it doesn't seem like much else happened this week besides the
usual things. We found a really good street to talk to people outside
so we were there like 3 days this week. A member lives there and he
saw us all 3 days, so he probably thinks all we do is hang out on his
street :) But it was cool because he's nice.

Transfers is this week, but I am still in training, so Hermana
Starling and I are staying here together. One of the English speaking
sisters in our ward is leaving though, so we are super sad about that.
MOM..... I am 2/13 of the way done with my mission.....

Have a great week ya'll!!! I love you :)

Week 11 - August 30

 Hola todos!!! Esta semana fue super largo y mucho paso! :)

So much has happened that I'm not sure where to start. So last week I
talked about Eder and about Brando a lot. We were so excited about
Brando, although a bit nervous that he was doing things for the wrong
reasons. But he was progressing-reading the Book of Mormon, praying,
trying to strengthen his relationship with God, so we were hoping he
was doing it for God and not for us. After we emailed last week,
Hermana Starling called President Brough and asked him about what we
should do and if we should continue to teach him. President said we
should continue teaching him for a week and then see what happened by
the end of the week. Unfortunately, that didn't last long.... The next
day, we were on Facebook contacting people, and Brando messaged
Hermana Starling. He said "I have a question....." So of course we
were like, "Oh what is it?" His question was "Is it a sin to like a
Mormon?" We didn't know what to do, so we called President Brough
again and asked. He said that we should tell him that it isn't a sin
to like a Mormon but that since she is a missionary it is
inappropriate. He told us we would have to stop teaching him and that
Elders would take over...... Our "golden" investigator was gone....
And we don't actually think he is willing to meet with the Elders. It
really hurt Hermana Starling to find out that he was doing it mainly
for us.  He is an amazing guy with so much potential, and we thought
he was so ready to change and receive the gospel. We are praying that
one day he will realize that life is more about having fun in the
moment, and that God really can be a guide in his life. But at least a seed was planted and we hope one day he will remember the things we
taught, when it is more of a priority for him.

To make things better (sarcasm), on the same day, we dropped our other
awesome investigator, Eder. He was just so close to having everything
click that it was also really sad to drop him. The reason we did was
because he kept missing appointments and was ignoring our Facebook
messages. So I guess we dropped each other.  We went from 3
investigators to 1 in the matter of a few hours.

We are always trying to find more people to teach, but after that, we
were even more in need of people to teach. We were praying that we
would be able to find people that are prepared to receive our message.
Each night, we had been calling about 5-10 "potential investigators"
in our area book and either asking them if they were interested or
leaving them a message. We also planned on dropping people who weren't
interested and setting up appointments with those who were. On Tuesday
night I called and left about 5 messages in Spanish on people's
phones. About half an hour later, we got a call from one of the people
we left a message with!!! He said he got our message and wanted to
meet with us! We were so excited!! His name is Daniel. We set up an
appointment with him for Wednesday.

On Wednesday, we went to an apartment complex called Colonial Oaks.
There are a lot of people from different countries that live there, so
it's a great place to talk with people who speak Spanish! We went and
knocked on a few doors of people who had talked to missionaries
before. The first one turned out to be the apartment of someone
different than who we had record of. But guess what?! She spoke
Spanish!! And she was really quite nice. We took her information down
and set up an appointment with her for the next day! We weren't sure
what to expect, but were very hopeful that she would be willing to
receive our message. Her name is Josephina and is middle-aged (I'm
horrible with guessing ages). We continued to knock on more doors
without a ton more success, but we were able to invite people to learn
more which is always good.

Then we went our appointment with DANIEL. Daniel is Cuban. Cubans are
fabulous and I love them. Unfortunately, I can't really understand
what they say to me. Especially Daniel. He talks really really really
fast. At times, I can't even figure out what words he says let alone
what the words mean! Haha so good thing Hermana Starling is a pro. But
anyway, we sat on a bench outside (we can't go in the houses of men
without a woman there) and taught him about the restoration. He seemed
really accepting of all of it. He said he believes in God and Christ
and nobody else. So we had that in common, which was a good starting
point. He also shared some experiences with God and talked about how
no one else in his family believes the things he does ( I can't be
sure that's what he said, but from what Hermana Starling and I and the
Spirit concluded together, it's bound to be right ;D). So we gave him
a Book of Mormon and asked him if he would read it and pray to find
out if it is true. He said he would be willing to do that. Oh and did
I mention that it was pouring buckets on our heads at this point????
Yeah we were very wet, but were we going to let that stop us? Since
when did rain stop us? Never. :) We were very happy at the end of the
lesson because of the miracles the Lord was providing for us. We hoped
Daniel would prove to be someone searching for the truth in his life.

We then went and taught Jose and Roger what to say at the doctor in
Engish. It was super fun because their cousins Maria and Milton who
they live with joined in and we helped them too. We pretended we were
the doctors and they were the patients and they had to respond to
questions in English and tell us about their symptoms, etc. It was
actually really fun. We wanted to show up wearing doctor's outfits,
but a combination of lack of planning and lack of time made that
impossible.

When we got home that night, we closed our planning session with a
prayer. As I prayed, I asked that someday we would be able to talk
with some of the people whose doors we had knocked on during the day.
Literally right after the words were out of my mouth, the phone rang
and it was someone whose door we had knocked on that day. He was like
"My friend told me you passed by today"... Etc. So we set up an
appointment with him. So that was a miracle. We were feeling a lot
better at the end of Wednesday because of all the tender mercies we
had seen. It was incredible to see how the Lord really wants His
children to hear the gospel, and when we have faith He prepares a way
for us to cross paths.

Thursday we taught Josephina and she loved what we taught her. She
said she believes in God but doesn't go to church. It seemed like our
message rang true with her. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon
and pray about it.

Friday, we were able to have an online lesson over Facebook messenger
which was amazing! It was very weird and different for us because we
had never done it before, but it was also awesome to be able to talk
with Hermana Starling about what we wanted to say and what videos we
could share to bring the spirit. We also were able to pray through the
voice recording feature. Technology is SUCH a blessing. God's work is
going to start moving so fast once more missions have the chance to
use Facebook. It's really exciting to be a missionary at this exciting
time!!!!

On Saturday, Hermana Starling was super sick. So we stayed inside
pretty much all day. Which was really hard on her because we had to
cancel like 3 appointments in the morning. But we both had a good nap
and ate some crackers and cheese.

In the evening, Hermana Starling was feeling better so we met with
Daniel again and taught him the rest of the Restoration. We emphasized
receiving answers to prayers and how God really does listen to us and
wants to help us. As I told him the first vision, he seemed like he
really felt the Spirit. He was really accepting, especially after we
clarified that we don't worship Joseph Smith, we just respect him as
the prophet who the gospel was restored through. He said he knows God
answers prayers and that he listens to his prayers. We invited him
again to read the Book of Mormon since he hadn't last time. We also
invited him to church and were THIS CLOSE (picture my fingers really
close together) to having him agree to come, and then he backed out
and said "Oh I will come next week". We weren't sure what to think
because he seemed like he believed the things we were talking about,
but wasn't willing to come to church with us. We do know it's a big
change and is scary so hopefully he will be able to come next week.

Sunday was fine because the people who were speaking gave us their
talks before Sacrament meeting and we were able to find the scriptures
in Spanish and translate much more smoothly. Well, all I did was find
the scriptures. Hermana Starling did the translating. But I translated
the prayer! Go team. :) And then in Sunday school I managed to follow
what was happening in the lesson and translated for a woman in Relief
Society. Thank goodness people are patient and understand how hard it
is to learn a language. The lady was very sweet and although I'm not
sure she learned much from the lesson, at least she knew I was trying
and that I loved her. So that was good.

We tried to set up a family home evening with the Perez family and
Daniel on Monday. Daniel told us he would come and everything and we
were so excited. Hermano Perez called and got his phone number so he
could coordinate with Daniel for what time to pick him up. About 10
min later, we found out Daniel had backed out. We were so sad. We went
over to his house and talked him and he said he had work at the time
it was supposed to happen, but he sure didn't look like he was going
to work. We set up an appointment for tonight and we are going to tell
him we can't keep teaching him if he doesn't do things we invite him
to do, like reading and praying and going to church etc. If he hasn't
read by tonight, we will tell him to let us know when he has read and
we will set up another appointment. It's sad, but there isn't much we
can do if he doesn't have the desire to act on his faith.

I slammed my finger in the door at the church sometime during the
week. It HURT! But I remained calm and said to my companion who hadn't
noticed that my finger was stuck, "Will you open the door?" I think I
said it quite frantically, but I didn't even scream. Except for in my
head. Anyway, the moral of the story is it didn't turn any cool colors
:( But it still hurts if I push on it too hard. So we don't think it's
broken. Maybe just bruised? All ye doctors out there, what is my
diagnosis?

So on Sunday we were in a trailer park TWEing and just bearing our
testimonies to everyone we met. We came across a guy and he started
asking a lot of questions. We answered them to the best of our
abilities and the answers made sense to him. Then he seemed willing to
listen so we asked him if he had like ten minutes to listen to a
lesson. We taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel and about
the story of Joseph Smith. We said a prayer right there in the street
and then taught him. The spirit was definitely there and then when we
got to the part where Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father appeared to
Joseph Smith, the wind picked up a ton and we had to move closer to
him and talk really loud so he could hear. He was like "Wow, seems
like Satan doesn't want me to hear this or something." We were like
"Exactly!" Something always seems to happen at that part when we are
teaching. Without fail, because Satan knows how powerful the story is
and how much potential it has to change lives. Luckily we got our
point across and he seemed pretty interested and a lot of his
questions were answered. We set a return appointment and friended him
on Facebook so that was awesome!! We are so excited to teach him again
because he seems so ready for the truth and he has been asking all the
right questions. I will keep you updated :)

Monday we had a new missionary training with President Brough and the
Assistants to the President. We talked a lot about baptism. The Spirit
was so strong and I learned a lot of great things from it, but one of
my favorite things I learned was about expectations. We talked about
how if we expect that we will baptize people, then we will. Maybe it
won't happen right away or in the way we expect, but it will happen.
We also talked about the importance of having desires to baptize.
Because that is really our purpose as missionaries. We don't want to
baptize because it's a number and we get some kind of recognition for
doing it or because we feel good when we have success. We want to
baptize because baptism is the way someone enters into the Kingdom of
God. It is a SAVING ORDINANCE. Without baptism, you cannot return to
live with God again. With baptism, you can start on the path to living
in the presence of God for eternity with your family. We know how
important baptism is in God's plan and how much He wants His children
to return to live with Him. We want people to be baptized because we
love them and want them to be happy now and forever.  So we will
baptize. In the month of October we have a mission goal that every
companionship will baptize at least one person. And we are going to do
that. God will provide a way.

I love you all. I am so sorry this is so long. It was a crazy week :)
Let me know what's going on in Utah :)